Product Description:
Personnel include: Sarah Vaughan (vocals); Miles Davis, Taft Jordan, Billy Butterfield, Jimmy Maxwell (trumpet); Will Bradley, Benny Green (trombone); Jimmy Jones (piano); J.C. Heard, Nick Fatool (drums).
Recording information: 1949 - 1953.
Sarah Vaughan's sultry, resonant, and technically agile vocals couldn't be more perfectly suited to romantic ballads. Consequently, this addition to Columbia's LOVE SONGS series is one of the best. During her tenure for the label in the late 1940s and early '50s, Vaughan's recordings featured lush orchestral accompaniment and a pop-oriented approach. This set is drawn primarily from that pool, with a program heavy on standards ("The Nearness of You" and "It Might as Well Be Spring"). Vaughan was only in her early 20s when she cut these sides, but her musicianship and command of phrasing are so masterful that they belie her age.
Sprinkled among the string-rich crossover material are a few straight-ahead jazz numbers. The languid, winding "Goodnight My Love" and the yearning narrative "East of the Sun (And West of the Moon)," for example, were cut with a small combo that features a young Miles Davis on trumpet. These tracks truly shine, as the understated accompaniment allows the subtleties in Vaughan's melodic explorations to come soaring through. Her technical expertise is matched by the sensuality, longing, and romance that drips from her voice, so that her simmering lyrical intensity can, literally, make one weak in the knees.
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